American Ninja 2: The Confrontation (1987)

American Ninja 2 (Often released with the subtitle “The Confrontation”) was a sequal to the original American ninja movie which came out in 1985. This is one of the few times I’ve spoken about a films sequel before I’ve delt with the original and there are a few reasons for that that were fairly tedious but basically boiled down to “When I started this channel I was only going to talk about Janky B-movies and experimental/erotic films” and the first American ninja movie is actually pretty good. its a bit slow in places but its fun enough…this film was a bit more unusual and weird and I thought at the time it would fit my channels tone a bit better. It may have also been down to the fact that i’d watched the first one only a week or 2 before I decided to start my channel in the first place and I really didnt feel up to rewatching a film like this so soon after i’d watched it for the first time. This was also the first episode I recorded for the second ever group of episodes I made 🙂

(I’ll be honest; im a sucker for a ninja film that features genetically modified super ninjas)

EDIT [22/01/21]:

So At some point around 18 months ago, for reasons youtube cant fully explain to me, a glitch happened on my youtube channel scrubbing approximately 8 minutes of footage from the Above American Ninja review. I worked with them over a couple of days to try and retrieve it. But as far as they were concerned it has sadly been lost. So! I decided to try and put this right. In part because I plan to cover more American Ninja films on my channel in future, and in part because I actually kind of like this review. Im not massively fond of my early work (As most youtubers will atest after a certain period your ‘early works’ come with a healthy dose of cringe at what you could have done better/differently.

So I decided to rebuild the review! I luckily keep the original isolated vocals of every review I make and, while doing some frame matching for the review itself I sourced better quality copies of the footage, I worked on the layout, processed the audio and generally tidied the whole thing up to make it look and feel a lot more in line with my current reviews. I wouldnt say it was a ground up remake. more that this is a 2.5D reimagining of a 2D review. it’s just a bit more polished. AND it brings the review back from near obscurity! So I hope you enjoy this; it didnt take a particularly long time to put together, but I felt it needed doing! 🙂

The Dreaded Opening Gambit

Well I should probably make this both brief and somewhat welcoming. but in all honesty im really quite rubbish at introductions. Its something I’ve just never really gotten the hang of in all honesty. In real life I always either overdo it and come across as some grinning swivel eyed loon who just cant let a good silence do its thing. Or Im the diametric opposite; I come across as a little bit aloof and altogether overly cool and distant. More often than not im the former which usually in turn leads to several very clumsy and awkward interactions.

Y’see I suffer from that inherent awkward Britishness that plagues Richard Curtis films so charmingly. But in real life is just a bit peculiar. If we’re meeting for the first time I guarantee you something wont quite land right. From a premature handshake to getting my muddles worded up. To mishearing someone in a conversation and accidentally derailing it…even just standing/sitting in an awkward way. Its always happened and unless im in the other mindset (In which case people think im being purposefully grumpy with them…which I can assure you really isn’t the case) It always will happen.

(Basically this; Except I dont declare my love to everyone and I look like a shaved bottle of Sunny delight)

But you know what. For the most part im okay with this. After being the victim of multiple instances of things just generally being difficult and embarrassing I’ve learnt to just accept and roll with anything that happens on a day to day basis. If things get weird nowadays I either embrace it and double down purposefully making things worse…often turning an awkward moment into something at least partially resembling a humorous one or at minimum I’ll at least try to roll with it and see where things end up. I really have to be put in a very odd situation these days before even I have to throw my hands up and say “Well! I tried!”

In many ways that’s why I enjoy the ability to talk to people through instant messaging, youtube comments and email. It means I can take my time with things, really read whats being said and craft an answer without getting past my opening point and then spending the rest of the conversation coming across like this:

(Okay so Im maybe a bit more coherent than this in conversation…but not much…)

I always try to be as warm as I can with people. Hell if you’ve taken the time to read this, or watch one of my videos or just comment somewhere saying “Hi!” You’ve pretty much made my day already. It means a lot to me that someone would try to reach out in that capacity. That someone would actually put time aside to watch what I produce and feel like they WANTED to talk to me about film, the world or just something random. and while it may take me a little while to get back I almost definately will…

So welcome!, Im sorry in advanced. and I hope sometime you’ll stop by and say “Hi”sometime…